Finally, a good one!!!!

Last tuesday I finally caved in and decided it was about time to go see a sports chiropractor/ART professional. My left knee had been bothering me for a while and I wanted to make sure I did not get injured. Let me tell you; good thing I went. My doc discovered I am mostly "driven" by my quads and hammies; and the poor muscles are all beat up. Knots and bumps everywhere; as a result of working them extra hard without giving them the proper care they deserve. Needless to say, after a couple of very painful sessions (with some bruising involved) I am on the mend and have made one or two new best friends in the process... The foam roller and the stick. The stick has come to work with me since wednesday and has allowed me to self inflict torture three to four times a day. My relationship with the foam roller is mostly left for nighttime, once I am in my PJ's and ready to go to bed. Oh, what fun times we have had! 

My training this week has been spot on. Not only did I manage to get all my planned hours in, but I also was able to let go of trying to be perfect at every.single.workout. If you ask Coach, she will tell you that is my biggest obstacle. Wanting to be perfect all the time. And I truly believe that my success this week was due to the fact that I started each training session with a blank mind. Yes, I had stuff on my mind but I did not predispose myself to anything but the best I could give at the time. And you know what? It worked!

I will admit, when she put 3200 yards on my schedule and I saw what the sets looked like, I was scared. They looked horrible, HARD, almost impossible (ok a little extra drama, please go along :) ). But I got to the pool, got ready, took a big breath and let it all go. I had read the descriptions so many times; that during the mainset I did not even have to stop to re-read them. I tackled one set at a time and I got through it; without having to take any extra rest in between (something that happens often in my world). And you know what? I proved to myself that it's all in my head. I did not get super good within a week. I don't even think I got faster. But you know what changed? My mindset. I did not worry about the next day, or even the next set; I just focused on the task at hand. One stroke at a time, one day at a time.

On saturday, my long brick got rained in. On tap 3 hours on the trainer with a 30 min run off the bike. I popped in  Buffy the Vampire Slayer (favorite show ever), got my nutrition together and "off" I went. Not going to lie, it hurt; especially the last 30 minutes. I wanted off. The thought of running for 30 minutes after getting off the bike was daunting. When the 3 hours were over, I readied myself to run outside in the rain. I was bracing myself for the worst and then I started running. My legs responded beautifully, I felt light, fluid. The rain was oddly welcomed. And I felt whole. And I remembered. It's moments like this that make me love this sport. It is discovering yourself over and over again. And it never ceases to amaze me...

I live in a bubble

I have been living in the US for about 7 years. I have immersed myself in the american culture and have become "used" to how things are done here. The schedules, the opposite seasons, starting the school year in the middle of august, eating dinner at 6 pm (back in Argentina sometimes we do not eat until 8 or 9 pm), putting Megan to bed early. You name it, I have embraced it.

Part of me detached from my home culture, almost not speaking my birth language; choosing to distance myself from everything latino related. Why? Because I did not want to be treated differently. I wanted to mingle. I wanted to become as American as possible. Somewhere along the road I decided to bury my heritage. Not really talk about it. I felt like there was nothing amazing or worth noting about it. You know?

I have always missed my family, my friends, some of the traditions we have back in Argentina. Sitting among friends, drinking mate, barbecueing on a charcoal grill every sunday, taking public transportation almost anywhere I needed to go, not having to own a car, eating my mother's cooking. Ah... memories of home.

I have not been home for 2 years. And I don't think we will be able to go this year. It's the year of the Ironman for me and we decided to go on a family vacation that Megan will love. The budget won't allow us to take that extra trip. Would I want to go home? Absolutely! My two best friends are both expecting their first child; and I will miss it. The soul hurts, but you do what you can, when you can.

We have lived in this neighborhood for about 4 years. And in all that time I have only met a handful of our neighbors; the ones that live close by. This morning the community was hosting a yard sale and we had a few things to sell. A family came by and after talking to them for all of 3 minutes I came to find out that they are from Argentina as well. Not only that, but there are also 4 more families from back home as well. Immediately we started talking in spanish, reminiscing about the life back home. They automatically opened themselves out to me and invited me to come over their house and just hang out. Get together, drink some mate; eat empanadas. They opened my eyes to all the wonderful products from home (the ones I miss the most) that are available for purchase here. Now I won't have to wait for my mom's packages (or worry about how much it costs her to ship them here!). I can go to a market and pick some of the ingredients for some of my mom's best recipes and make them myself.

All of the sudden I felt a little closer to home. I want to be friends with this people, I want to connect; I want to embrace my culture, where I come from. There is nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be ashamed of. I am who I am, I am from where I am. I can't help to think I have been living in a bubble, and it's about time I pop it.

What a week!

It all started last saturday with a long 2:30 ride on my trainer. It was a cold, rainy day and having 2:30 on tap for a bike ride I decided to stay indoors. The key here was the entertainment playing on my little TV. Lord of the rings: The two towers carried me through and made the workout fly by.

Having a couple of bad days during the previous week, I had to move my long run from friday to sunday (forgoeing my rest day). Sunday we got up to a torrential downpour that forced me to do the run idoors on the treadmill. I ran for 1:10 and then decided to take the "speed" intervals that were built into the run outside. It was about 32 degrees and it had stopped raining for a bit. My neighborhood is a 1 mile loop and I figured I could run the last 35 minutes of the prescribed time outside. I changed my shorts for my tights and long sleeves and out I went. It was cold but not too bad, until I made the last turn of the loop, heading to the stretch that would bring me past home. The wind was so hard that i could barely move. I did one loop and called it a day. I emailed Liz telling her I am not as tough as I thought I was: YET.

Sunday evening started snowing, which is kind of a big event here in the south. We got about 4 inches and of course everything was closed on monday, because the city does not have the infrastructure to plow the streets and all. I ended up working from home and enjoying the snow day with Megan playing outside making snow angels. I had long ride again on tap for monday morning. 2 hours. It worked perfectly because I did not have to get up extra early to fit it in before work. So the snow day was kind of welcome. It allowed me to not only work from home, but get a few extra hours of zzz's.

During that long rida I also had the company of the Lord of the Rings. The Return of the King this time. Have I mentioned that I LOVE those movies? I have read the books 3 times. Definitely one of my all time favorites.

Tuesday went on fine. I did my run after work and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think after that the week fell apart. On wednesday I had a stiff neck; I tried swimming and it HURT. So after toughing it out for the warmup I called it a day and went to work. When I got home I got on my trainer and felt completely weak. I had to inhale 1/2 a clif bar to feel like I had some kind of energy. Liz emailed me reminding me that I need to EAT; which I have been doing, so I do not know what went wrong. Thursday I woke up with a nasty migraine. It lasted all day. I even took my migraine medicine but that did not help. Of course I went to work and had a busy day. People told me I should have taken the day off, but I have a couple of trips planned for the year (including the family vacation to Disney World) and I want to save my PTO days for those occasions. There was definitely no training on thursday, my head could not take it.

Then on Friday I had a do-over of Wednesday's swim and that did not go so well. Let's say it was frustrating and not a good experience. Work was work and I still had a headache... Kind of a leftover from the prior's day migraine.

Saturday came, and I had a 5k on tap. The goal for this race was to get out there, find the hurt and learn to deal with it. Secretly I had a pace goal/finish time; but Liz not to focus on that; to work the mental aspect of the race. It was a company sponsored event, so I had to wear a t-shirt with the company's logo. Cotton. Not my first choice, but it served the purpose. I am not going to do a race report, but I will say that I was able to accomplish everything I had set out to. I even PR'd by about 20 seconds; running faster than at my peak last year. Definitely a good feeling; and something I needed after the awful week I had.

I emailed with Liz about this and told her it was reassuring that even though I feel slow during some of my training runs; I am capable to put out some nice speed on race day. The pace I ran was not in my real of possiblity a couple of years ago. Heck, even last year I didn't think I could run as fast as I did yesterday! To this day, it still boggles my mind. But you know what? I'll take it!